


Looking Glass Past

by SilverRose22



Category: Hannibal (TV), Hannibal Lecter Series - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Reincarnation, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, M/M, Murder Family, Murder Husbands
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-11
Updated: 2020-07-11
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:54:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,062
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25195768
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SilverRose22/pseuds/SilverRose22
Summary: Soulmate au where when you meet your soulmate's eyes, you remember every past life you've lived with them--The first time Will sees Hannibal in this life is for a pre-recorded guest lecture in his psych 101 class. His teacher flicks the projector on, and a smooth European voice washes over the crowd of half awake, bleary-eyed college students. Something tugs at the brown haired boy enough to glance up, if just for a second, and his eyes meet Hannibal's. Then everything flashes.
Relationships: Will Graham/Hannibal Lecter
Comments: 9
Kudos: 260





	Looking Glass Past

The first time Will sees Hannibal in this life is for a pre-recorded guest lecture in his psych 101 class. His teacher flicks the projector on, and a smooth European voice washes over the crowd of half awake, bleary-eyed college students. Something tugs at the brown haired boy enough to glance up, if just for a second, and his eyes meet Hannibal's. Then everything flashes.

Will is in ancient greece when he kills another young boy for the first time. His father sends him to Peleus. The man gives him to his son Achilles, and when the young master calls out _Patrocles_ , it sounds like a prayer. Brown eyes draw him in and do not let him go. When the war comes he all but begs his beloved to go.

"I'll be safe. I'll just get them back to their ships, and I'll be back to you quicker than the tide rolls in."

Achilles relents with a parting kiss and Patrocles pushes the Trojans back. Back farther back than he promised, dying in his lover's armor without a final goodbye.

In the next life, Will is Sarah Churchill. She meets eyes with the Queen Anne when she is still a princess, and the two become inseparable. They write back and forth "If I writ whole volumes I could never express how well I love you. . . . Unimaginably, passionately, affectionately yours,” until Queen Anne quietly distances herself from Sarah as gout overtakes her. Grieving and empty, Sarah lives out in the country side until she too lies to rest.

In one life, a young girl is left at the door of a church. Out the front door comes a young lady with ash blond hair who glances about before taking the bundle of cloth, and cradling it in her arms. She smiles and names it Abigail.

In another, A brown haired boy sits down to write letters home from the battle front the before bombs go off.

In Florence, Hannibal buys a hunting dog and becomes enamored with the kennel owner and the kennel owner's tiny daughter with bright blue eyes.

In each and every life they find each other.

When Will blinks, he's watching the man again. The way he curls his mouth around each word makes Will melt in his seat. But he's so tired. So bone achingly lonely and tired. Because each time Hannbial comes into his life, he also leaves with one more chunk of Will missing by the end.

By the time Will has driven back to his small apartment in Louisiana that night, he doesn't look up one Hannibal Lecter. He does not look up to see if there's an Abigail Lector either. Instead, he pours himself two fingers of whisky and sets his eyes on finishing up an essay for his History class. If his information on The Trojan war is frighteningly well detailed, his professor certainly doesn't say so.

Will scrapes through his last few years of college, becomes and unbecomes a cop, and helps out Jack Crawford with homicidal maniacs that remind him a bit too much of his love. He settles for living in the middle of nowhere Wolf Trap, Virginia, alone and empty to live out the rest of his days.

He's finishing lecturing about a Mrs. Marlowe when Jack strides in asks to borrow his imagination for the Minnesota Shrike case. When will sees the board full of girls that look so much like his daughter, he turns to pace in the other direction.

"There all very mall of America," Will rationalizes aloud.

"Same hair color, same eye color, roughly the same age, same height, same weight" Jack parrots back, "so what is it about all of these girls?"

Will can't help but remember taking Abigail fishing for the first time in France. He wrapped his hand around her tiny fingers to bait the hook. She poked it a few times before letting out a bright giggle. Grinning, Will knelt to her level.

"Last thing before casting a line: name the bait on your hook after somebody you cherish. If the person you named it after cherishes you, superstition goes, you'll catch the fish." 

Abigail squished her eyebrows together before letting out a huff.

"Well what are you naming yours after?" 

"After you of course." He carded his fingers through her hair, "I'll catch more fish than I can count." 

Abigail hummed and nodded her head sagely. She poked at the bait one more time, and let out a decisive,

"This one will be called Papa." Will's grin stretched ear to ear. 

"Then you'll catch many fish indeed."

And indeed they did. Enough that dinner that week contained no other meat. A fun sea food challenge for his favorite chef.

Will blinks rapidly and glances at Jack's shoes.

"It's not about all of these girls. It's about one of them. He's like Willy Wonka. Every girl he takes is a candy bar. Hidden amongst all of the candy bars is the one true victim, which if we follow through on our metaphor, is your golden ticket."

Jack slowly nods while Will tries to make his escape from the board, from memories he shouldn't have to relive.

"I want you to get closer to this," Jack demands. Will waves his arm and turned away.

"No no no no. You have Heimlich at Harvard and Bloom at Georgetown," he reasons, "They do the same thing I do." Jack pins him with his stare, solid and unmoving. 

"That's not exactly true is it," he calls out, "You have a very specific way of thinking about things." The FBI agent must have been a salesman in a former life for all he never gave up.

"The evidence explains," Will tries.

"Then help me find some evidence," Jack pleads.

Will looks to the wall, and to the cork of the board. Anywhere to avoid eyes that could have belonged to his own little girl. To the girls just like his own from grieving parents that would have to wait until the next life to see their kids again. Kids who might not have even gotten to meet their old parents in this life, and missed one more chance and countless decades.

"That may require me to be sociable," he protests weakly. But both Jack and he knew that he would work the case without any more convincing.

**Author's Note:**

> Just getting into Hannibal really. I just got to the conversation about Achilles and Patrocles when I felt the sudden urge to write this blurb. I'll probably add a little bit more to it once I've finished the series, but it's not gonna be like a 60k slow burn sort of thing. Thanks for reading!


End file.
